


it's something alright

by Starlingdarlings



Category: Half-Life
Genre: Benrey being Benrey, M/M, Panic Attacks, Sensory Overload, also benrey has a huge huge crush on tommy AND gordon, benrey and bubby are a brotp of mine don't @ me, benrey gets a therapist and they'll be okay, benrey is an okay babysitter, gordon/benrey (implied), he just dislikes g-man and that's okay, honestly this is a speed run of a much larger fic/story, mention of puking, mention of unreality and dissasociating, nonbinary benrey (implied), they change pronouns like half way through, tommy/benrey (implied)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:41:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28178541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starlingdarlings/pseuds/Starlingdarlings
Summary: Reality was something else for Benrey. Slimy, wet, uncomfortable, outright disgusting, and... surprisingly okay.It didn't have to be all bad.
Relationships: Bubby/Dr. Coomer (Half-Life)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 37





	it's something alright

**Author's Note:**

> Again, warning for mentions of disassociating and puking.

The real world was something else. Literally. Everything was just so indescribably different, immediately off. It was boney, and fleshy, and all wet in-between. His first attempt at breathing ended in him on the ground, throat wiggling in his neck in what _something_ supplied to him was a gag reflex. Spit, actual, real spit spilled out of his open mouth with a solid splat. 

It took him a second to figure breathing out. He was more than sure that he looked pretty bad, his face hot and his lungs burning as he lay face down, gasping and making all kinds of fucked up noises. It was far from an epic gamer moment. 

The next thing he would notice was that the ground was cold, and wet, and squishy, and brown. Muddy. It was muddy because this was real mud. He ran the mud between his fingers, deciding he did not like the sensation at all, so he went to wipe it off on his pant leg- _and it was even worse_. The slimy mud was now getting everywhere, unpleasantly gritting against his skin. It made him itchy. 

Suddenly playing in the mud and dirt, having a good time, made zero sense. Nope. Benrey didn't like mud, and he wasn't having a good time. He wasn't even _with_ Gordon which wasn't too epic either...

He got up. Instantly he felt heavy, the weight of real gravity weighing down on his little crunchy back like bricks, but like, _real_ bricks. (Later he would learn that he didn't like the texture of brick either.)

So he sits right back down, no real reason to get up and move if he had no idea where he was. That was how someone got lost. 

Well, no, he was already lost. He did know he was in the real world though. And, as he rolled over onto the grass- bright green, wet, because everything here was so wet- the grass was just barely better than the mud- he knew that there was a mansion right in front of him, and a lot of trees behind that. He also knew that there was a huge bed of flowers right behind him. When he'd rolled onto his back he'd almost trampled over the… 

Uhhh… 

Sunflowers, cuz those are big and bright yellow, so they look like the sun, right? 

The sun. That was something that was totally not here, which was weird because as far as he understood it, humans didn't have night vision. 

His first thought was that it was just a glitch in the color palette, giving the server a daytime palette while the moon was out. This was reality though. That wasn't supposed to happen in reality. 

Maybe he wasn't real after all… 

The thought made something in his stomach drop. He was still a glitch. All his hard work to fit in and be the perfect plot twist villain in the game, and he still didn't belong. 

Tommy found him half submerged in the fountain that next morning, arms held around his legs as he sat in the fetal position, shivering. Warm blood meant that it could also get cold. Shivering meant that his "human" body was trying to compensate for being fucking _cold_. 

Anyways, Benrey assured him he didn't take the whole helping to kill him thing personally. "Water under the bridge, bro." 

And then Tommy took him in and got him warmed up. 

* * *

So, it turned out the mansion was Tommy's. Actually it was his biological father's, but the G-man never came over and he sure as shit didn't game with his son or play ball with him. Having a passport didn't make him any less of an absent daddy in Benrey's book. If pushed, he might go as far as to say he didn't like him all that much, not that he would ever tell Tommy that. Tommy was wanting to catch up with G-man, and far from Benrey to be the one to spoil that. Even if G-man was super weird. Benrey could avoid him. There was more than enough room in this place for the both of them. 

And Tommy had a ps4 and a spare room. Mostly the ps4, Benrey didn't mind sleeping outside, not if he really had to. Just as long as he wasn't in the mud or on the grass. If the grass was dry it wouldn't be so bad though. Dry mud; that was called dirt, was just as weird as wet mud though. Yeah, laying in the dirt and letting it get in-between his little toes and in his clothing? Hard pass on that one. 

Playing video games as opposed to being in one was as epic as he thought it'd be, not that he didn't have his rage quit moments or anything, but just chilling out with Tommy playing Call of Duty or Animal Crossing was really nice. Movie nights were another thing he enjoyed. They were essentially video game cutscenes presented in a way that he didn't have to play to understand a plot (or at least that's what he said to mess with Tommy), and getting to have popcorn- food in general was really something he liked. Eating it more so than having to dispose of it when it went bad. Benrey loved his epic gamer fuel, but suffice to say leaving a tupperware of old spaghetti-os under his bed to get covered in mold and start to rot was no good. Opening an old, pungent tupperware also made him prone to vomiting all over the floor. Tommy helped clean it all up though, so it turned out okay in the end. 

_He also hugged Benrey, patting and rubbing his back even though Benrey was gross and shaky. When he had formally been introduced to G-man and pulled in for an unnecessarily firm handshake, he'd decided he didn't like touching people. But if it was with Tommy, it might be alright. His skin was cool to the touch, and he smelled nice… Like something sweet, but with a cool sting that kept helped ground him enough to stop apologizing._

_Sunkist came into the room and nuzzled his side just as Tommy gave him one final pat and said they would need to take care of the mess. The dog plopped her heavy body onto Benrey, tolerating his hands digging into her fur like a lifeline._

So far, Rooming with Tommy was nice.

* * *

Dr. Coomer and Bubby came over for dinner all the time. Neither had been close with them before, and really, neither had Tommy, but after tossing some half-hearted apologies around they started to get along like a house on fire. Or, Benrey might have thought so before Bubby managed to set his and his spouse's house on fire. They moved in that night of course. There was plenty of room in the mansion and it made no sense for them not to, even if it was just for a bit. 

That was the thing. 

It was not for a little bit, and that would have been fine… 

If it wasn't a little bit cringe. 

Benrey was a chill kinda guy, didn't mind roommates at all. If they could tolerate G-man or all the bugs and spiders that didn't have passports, two buddies would be just fine. Dr. Coomer was really nice, actually knew how to make food, not that he really needed to, it was just kinda cool to watch. Eating all that food he made wasn't easy without him around either. He was friendly too, always good at not mixing up laundry; even if they never mixed loads anyways, it was still a positive. Yeah, no. Dr. Coomer wasn't the problem. That was Bubby. 

Don't get them wrong, they adored Bubby. It was just that their friendship was a little much for everybody else, gaming systems included. 

Before Dr.Coomer and his husband moved in, they liked to pull pranks on Bubby. And when the couple moved in, pranking Bubby grew more dangerous just as surely as it was suddenly more tempting. Bubby did not appreciate having his glasses swapped out for blanks or getting water balloons thrown at him. And Benrey did not appreciate the tv on fire or the toilet exploding on them. 

Tommy didn't appreciate it either. Might have raised his voice, just for a second, which made Benrey feel worse than anything. Worse than not belonging, and being alone, or having to be bad. Things were easily replaced, their friendships and place here, not so much. Having Tommy angry with them was the scariest thing, instantly filling them with guilt. All they had wanted to do was be Bubby's friend in the way he expected it. They hadn't meant to screw all of that up. 

At first all they felt was bad, like they _were_ bad. But they had been working on that with their therapist. Benrey wasn't just bad or exactly what someone else would expect, they were their own person who didn't need to be any of that to fit in, or to fit in at all, not that their therapist realized they literally weren't human. It's probably the thought that counts. 

So the prank war cooled down. The two of them played chess now. 

Yes, it was chess. No matter how many times Tommy told them that making the horsies fight and then kiss and make up couldn't really be called chess. 

* * *

Benrey was becoming pretty sure they were falling in love with Gordon Freeman. They already knew they liked him. Passport or not, he had a fairly nice ass. Messing with him was always fun too, the amount of suspicion and flustered confusion was always a riot. All in all, he was cute. 

No, they knew that he was some hot shit. It was just that they hadn't realized how deep they fell into this until he commented on their sweet voice again. 

They were all gathered at Gordon's place for dinner, Joshua was seated in a tall chair, talking in between bites no matter how many times Gordon was reminding him to chew. It was cute, and before Benrey knew it he was spewing little pale blue orbs. Gordon starred. Called it beautiful with that gentle awe that seemed to get caught in his throat. He cleared it and took a drink of his water with a cough, his face going a little red. Benrey might have teased him if he hadn't felt their own face heat up. And then the bubbles began to turn pink, spewing out of their mouth and onto Gordon's face. He wiped it off his cheek with a snort as Joshua was reaching out, trying to catch the bubbles in his tiny fingers. 

Gordon looked ready to ask about the color change, but let it go in favor of making sure Joshua didn't actually get his hands on their sweet voice and make a mess of himself. Eventually Joshua was sat at the couch, rambling at his grandparent Bubby who was more than happy to listen to him. 

Tommy wouldn't wipe the smug look from his face for days after that. 

* * *

Joshua liked his tea with fictional milk and two fictional sugars, and most importantly, _fictional_ in his fancy little teacup because his daddy said real tea didn't go in there while he wasn't there to supervise. Joshua makes sure to repeat that a few different times. While they set up the tea party, while they put goldfish and rice krispies on their plates, and while Benrey set their plates on the little table...

Benrey already knew of course. It was hard not to when Gordon left him a list, sent him several texts about it, and then reminded him on his way out the door as he was struggling to get a tie on. As much as the continued lack of trust stung, the worrying was adorable. 

Joshua himself was so sweet and kind and thoughtful, always happy to see him, and always wanted to hang out with him too. The kid even liked to game with him as long as Gordon supervised. it was barely a wonder how Benrey came to eat the words he said at what felt like such a long time ago. 

_Looks a little shit?_ Nah, he thought as Joshua tugged at his shirt and pulled him down for a hug. This kid was the coolest. Even if he worried like his dad did. Especially if he worried like this dad did. 

Benrey never thought he'd really come to appreciate that so much. Now he was really, truly eating his words. 

The real world was something else alright.

**Author's Note:**

> ...yeah like I said, this might become a longer story that I'll actually flesh out.


End file.
